I became attracted to Julian of Norwich in a Donaghey Scholars class I co-taught at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. My co-teacher, Michael Kleine, and I had developed a list of both rhetoricians and "rhetorical outliers." Outliers are people we define as those not usually associated with the history of rhetoric, including various women such as Aspasia of Miletus or Hildegrade von Bingen; people of different races, St. Augustine, Martin Luther King, Jr; religious traditions, e.g., Lao Tsu, Averroes. Students were to choose one rhetorician, research his or her work, and ultimately "channel" that person for the class showing how the person fits into the history of rhetoric.
We participate in the assignment researching and channeling someone students don't choose. In one particular semester, not a single student chose Julian of Norwich and I decided to take her on. I read Julia Bolton Holloway's translation of Julian's work, Showing of Love, found T. S. Elliott's "Little Gidding" where he quotes prolifically from Julian's writing, and read further about Julian's life. I learned that Julian's positivity was even more amazing considering that plague had swept through England three times during her lifetime, and that numerous wars and even rebellions shaped the country during those tumultuous times. I crafted an outfit based on an artist's rendering of Julian's possible attire and found endearing music that had been composed about Julian. In short, I became deeply attracted to this person and felt as if Julian were speaking to me through the centuries.
Our department focuses on positive communication and how it can bring human beings together. Specifically, we often work with CMM, Barnett Pearce's (and Cronen's) Coordinated Management of Meaning. A simple pattern might ask, "What are we making with our communication?" Then continuing, "What do we want to make?" Finally, determining, "What communication will get us there?" It seems that Julian was able to answer questions like these through her unique vision of positive spirituality. And she was doing this 600 or 700 years ago.
So every day I discover something new, a new article, a new book, a new researcher or artist, someone who is indelibly linked to Julian. Over the last week I have received never new books about Julian, and/or the what was available during her time. So I am reading another translation of Julian's work, Showing of love. This translation is called, Revelations of Divine Love, and it attempts to bring Julian's words into the 21st century. Julia Bolton Holloway's translation, on the other hand, strives to preserve the flavor of the original middle English, including words such as wroth (or angry), showing (or revelation) or oneing (or joining). Julia Bolton Holloway provides a glossary to translate these words that are no longer used in contemporary English.
ReplyDeleteI also discovered a few other books relevant for this journey, such as Cloud of Unknowing, by an unknown writer of the 14th century. The cloud talks about knowing God through a Via Negativa, or defining something through what it is not. Another book that became important to this journey was the autobiograpy of Margery Kemp, met with Julian at the window of her cell for counsel. Margery Kemp has the distinction of writing the first autobiography in English. Together with Julian's book also written in English, we have the start of English coming into its own. Another book that provides depth to this journey is Julia Bolton Holloway's Julian Among the Books: Julian of Norwich's Theological Library. This text examines the works that framed Julian's life, as well as detailing how her work made the journey to present day, the short text and the long text, the Amherst Manuscript and its precarious journey to the 21st century.
Carol, this is such an exciting journey for you! I look forward to reading more posts.
ReplyDeleteAll shall be well...i will see what happens if I repeat that 30 times a day...maybe there is a "magic" in it
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